Two connected houses tower above an older house on Halcyon Avenue in the 12South area in Nashville. / Samuel M. Simpkins / The Tennessean

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Joey Garrison

The Tennessean

This connector is actually just part of the large home on the right. / Sanford Myers / The Tennessean

The duplex code

All properties designated as residential — or “R” — in Davidson County allow for duplexes. Those designated residential/single family prohibit them. • Property prices have gotten so high, developers covering their land costs can more easily sell two homes at $500,000 each than one at $1 million. • Demand for newly constructed homes in older neighborhoods is high. • The change in zoning in some neighborhoods no longer requiring the “duplex” to be connected makes the home more appealing to some.

An older home sits to the left of duplex-type homes under construction in Nashville. The two large homes are connected in the middle. / Sanford Myers / The Tennessean

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Why build one home on a residential lot when it’s just as easy to squeeze in — and sell — two?

Increasingly, Nashville developers are making this calculation as they take advantage of a long-debated Metro code for duplexes that is getting renewed attention as it transforms neighborhoods countywide.

It’s thelinchpin of a heavily utilized formula: Buy an unwanted older home in a coveted neighborhood, demolish it and build anew to accommodate multiple households under two separate roofs.

That approach is nothing new here, but its application is on an upswing.

The increased density and larger residential structures have irked somein gentrified areas such as East Nashville and Edgehill and affluent ones like Green Hills. Developers counter by contending it is the only way they can make a profit as property gets more expensive.

Plus, as others point out, they are filling a demand. Families are willing to buy.

“The market is so good and people want to live in that area,” said Frank Hsu, a first-time developer who purchased property at Wedgewood and 10th avenues where he is building two homes that dwarf those around them.

He tore down a 1,500-square-foot home. In its place he is constructing a three-story, 3,200-square-foot structure that is connected to a 3,400-square-foot companion home through a breezeway. His asking price is $599,000 apiece.

“We’re just trying to maximize the possibilities,” he said.

Key to the two-homes-on-one-lot trend is that a zone change isn’t required. All properties designated as residential — which developers commonly call “R” — can accommodate duplexes. Yet they tend to upend the perception of what a duplex typically looks like.

In Nashville’s Urban Zoning Overlay, which includes neighborhoods closest to downtown, developers can construct what looks like two separate homes, with separate roofs, on the same lot — so long as 8 feet of both structures are connected. This can take the form of a long, enclosed breezeway or something much shorter.

The Metro Council in 2008 eliminated the requirement for the 8-foot connection in the more suburban areas, such as Green Hills, that are outside the urban overlay zone. This exemption, which requires units be separated by at least 10 feet, effectively permits two detached homes on one lot.

Neither the Metro Codes nor Metro Planning department tracks the number of building permits for such duplexes because, despite the duplex zoning definition, they are sold as single residences.

But those involved in the permit process say they are definitely becoming more common.

“I do see these more frequently,” said Joey Hargis, zoning examinations chief for the codes department.

Density is a sore spot

With the increased activity, council members are considering even more changes to the duplex rules.

Councilmen Charlie Tygard, a pro-development voice, and Jason Holleman, who often supports neighborhood interests, met with planning officials this week to discuss a proposal to do away with the connector requirement everywhere. The ordinance also might establish certain setbacks while scaling back the size of homes.

“Nobody likes it,” Tygard said of the connector, neither developers nor neighbors. “But it’s sort of a quirk in the system to qualify as a duplex.”

But it’s the density, not just the umbilical cord, that is a sore spot for many.

Ken Winter, who serves on the 12South Neighborhood Association’s board, framed the duplex boom as just one piece of an overall trend of constructing larger homes in his rapidly changing neighborhood.

“You start to take away simple things like light, breeze, sunshine, but you also mess with stormwater management,” he said.

On the listserv for District 17, which includes neighborhoods around Eighth Avenue South, its publisher, Peter Horton, has come up with a name: “McDuplexes.”

Yet it is outside their neighborhoods where the influx has been even greater. Hargis, with the codes department, said the 5-year-old law that eliminated the connector requirement triggered a spike.

“What I’m seeing is more questions, comments and concerns about just the fact that developers can buy a single-family home, tear it down and build two units in its place,” he said, adding that traffic and density top worries.

“That’s causing a great deal of angst among my constituents.”

Demand is 'out the roof'

The only way to halt the trend, he said, would be to down-zone property from residential to residential/single-family, which is something no one wants to touch.

“I take a pretty hard line when it comes to property-owner rights, and I don’t want to ever down-zone someone’s property against their will,” McGuire said.

Others say duplexes, if done correctly, can fit into a neighborhood architecturally. “I think you can have an increase in density and still have the quality of life that a neighborhood is known for,” said Councilman Peter Westerholm, who represents parts of East Nashville.

Among those utilizing the duplex code in Green Hills is Ed Gaw, an investor/developer who said he built some 120 homes in that area with a connector before the 2008 law and 60 without it since.

“The demand for new construction is just out the roof,” he said. Because of the rising cost to purchase land, he said, the decision to build two homes is a financial one.

“If you’ve got a lot for $300,000, and you only build one house on one lot … now that sales price has to be $1 million,” Gaw said. “There’s not too many people out there that can afford a $1 million home.”

Split the property in half, he said, and build two $500,000 homes, and the end product is something the “masses can afford.”

And that’s what makes the formula work.

Jamie Ratliff, 37, who works in health care, said he looked at several duplex-defined homes during his two-year search for a new home. He finally settled on a connector home near Granny White Pike in Green Hills, which he plans to move into Aug. 1. (Though the developers are authorized to build detached duplexes there, they can still build the connected variety.)

“Essentially, if you want newer construction in town in these hot areas, that’s typically what you’re going to find,” he said. “For a younger family, that’s kind of what you’re looking at.”